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Tehran Fashion Police Tighten Up

[Los Angeles Times] Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi - Iran's nationwide crackdown on fashions deemed un-Islamic has resumed in full force throughout Tehran. Vice police are stopping women in cars or walking along the streets with too much hair spilling out of their mandatory head coverings, or wearing open-toed sandals without socks or overcoats deemed too revealing. Men wearing tight T-shirts or boasting racy haircuts have also been targeted in a campaign to stamp out perceived Western cultural influences. "The police will act against those whose trousers are too short, who have skintight coats, shirts with Western logos, and Western hairstyles," Ahmad Reza Radan, the head of Tehran's police force, said on Iranian television. "We will ask those arrested where they bought their clothes and where they had their hair cut so those outlets can be closed down." Those who vocally or physically resist authorities are typically hauled away, tried in court, fined or sentenced to a few weeks in jail. Minibuses to cart off detainees accompany the morality enforcers as they establish checkpoints in busy squares throughout the city.
2007-07-27 01:00:00
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